Album review: Battles, Gloss Drop

One of the planet's most popular strange bands get some of their mates - and people they admire - to give their last album the remix treatment. And Dross Glop - a play on the original title Gloss Drop - is fun, thrilling, and, as you'd expect with anything to do with the New York instrumental crazies, quite often challenging.

The original album was a grower, whereas this remixed version is more immediately accessible. It helps that the songs are already familiar, but mostly it has to do with the sashaying, seven-minute hand-on-hip progressive house reworking of opener Wall Street by Brazilian producer Gui Boratto. For Battles, it's a surprising, and altogether inviting introduction to an album. Thankfully though, order is soon restored and next up is the static and dour mantra of Sweetie and Shag (done by Swedish ambient monster The Field) and a little later dubstepper Kode9's take on Africastle can't decide whether it's happy or sad and makes for the album's most brain-rattling piece.

Disappointingly the original mad and rousing clatter of Dominican Fade has been lost to a wash of whimsy and ambience.

However, the pinging and popping of Gang Gang Dances' version of the already kooky Icecream and Hudson Mohawke's banging fairground remix of Rolls Bayce makes up for it.